Research suggests blood test may help spot imminent heart attacks.

The Los Angeles Times (3/22, Brown) reports that physicians "are one step closer to a simple test that could predict whether a patient is about to have a heart attack - by using a blood sample to detect cells that have sloughed off of damaged blood vessel walls." This " finding, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, could potentially address 'the greatest unmet need' facing cardiologists, said lead author Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Translational Science Institute in San Diego."

        The U-T San Diego (3/22) reports, "The findings are based on a study of 50 people who reported to four San Diego County hospitals while they were having a heart attack."

        Bloomberg News (3/22, Flinn) reports, "Researchers compared blood samples of" these "patients with 44 healthy volunteers, and found a much higher level of abnormal circulating endothelial cells, or CECs, according to the study."

        The AP (3/22, Neergaard) reports, "'This study is pretty exciting,' said Dr. Douglas Zipes of Indiana University and past president of the American College of Cardiology." The study "suggests those cells are harmed 'not just in the minutes prior' to a heart attack, he said, 'but probably hours, maybe even days' earlier."

        The CNN (3/22) "The Chart" blog reports, "The National Institutes of Health and the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, better known as the stimulus, provided funding for the research." Also covering the story were HealthDay (3/22, Mann), WebMD (3/22, Goodman), and HeartWire (3/22, Miller).